Thousands of Brantford-Brant residents attended the annual Scare in the Square event in Harmony Square on Friday, October 3 and Saturday, October 4, 2025.
The two-day event kicked off on Friday evening with a variety of family friendly activities such as a character meet and greet, a roller skate party, the HOWL-o-ween dog parade and paranormal tours of the Brant County Museum and Archives with The Ontario Paranormal Society.
“Yesterday’s turnout was amazing, the highest attendance I’ve seen in a decade or so; I think we probably had about 1,500 people come out,” said Jennifer Middleton, Special Events Supervisor for the City of Brantford. “Even the dog parade was busy too! We probably had triple the amount of dogs than last year, which was just so awesome because we’ve never had that many before.”
On Saturday, attendees came dressed to impress for the costume contest. From Wolverine to Maleficent, spaghetti and meatballs and the Projectionist, visitors of all ages were sporting both their best handmade and store-bought costumes in an effort to win the judges’ favour.
Throughout the afternoon, youngsters could be seen catching a ride on the jack-o’-lantern themed Berry-go-round, trying their hand at different carnival games, laughing their way through one of four inflatable obstacle courses, having their face painted or striking a pose in the free photo booth.
Members of the Brantford Area Jeep Club also took over Dalhousie Street to show off their rides for the stationary jeep parade. Many handed out candy to the children as they passed by in awe of the spook-tacular decorations.
Back in Harmony Square, Marco the Clown spent some time making balloon creations while the Barry-O kidshow kept children entertained and engaged on the main stage.
Also on site was Casper’s Craft Corner and three pop-up escape rooms, the Witches’ Hunt, the Clown’s Dressing Room, and the Hot Seat Solo escape room, which all garnered plenty of attraction.
“The big exciting addition to the Casper’s Craft Corner tent this year was the boo-tique nail salon,” said Middleton with a smile. “The kids and even the adults could all get their nails done however they wanted so that was fun, I even got mine done too.”
While the area was stacked with fun activities and shopping opportunities, the day’s main attractions were the tiny-tots parade, the big costume contest and a large trick-or-treating event where children of all ages raced their way through the streets to collect their candy from 50 different businesses.
As part of this year’s fun, shuttle buses were also available to take people over to Mohawk Park on both days of the event for a clown-themed haunted house in the pavilion, a walk through the nightmarish trail system and a screening of the 2017 movie IT on Friday.
Middleton said that as someone whose job it is to plan special events, her favourite part of the job is seeing people getting to enjoy what she and her team have put together.
“I love watching how excited people are when they’re here at the event,” she said. “Like, seeing how giddy the kids get when they get their trick-or-treat maps is just the best, you know? The fulfillment that comes with offering a free event for people to attend and then seeing them have a good time… that’s what drives my passion for this job.”
Overall, the special events supervisor said she and her team were thankful for everyone who helped to make the annual Scare in the Square another great success.
“This event just grows every year and we’re so thankful for all the businesses that participate, all of our great sponsors who help us out and of course, our volunteers; they’re all here giving their time and their talents to make this happen and we couldn’t run these events without them,” Middleton concluded.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
